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Best Why: Day 12

Yesterday I ended up in a Best Buy store while looking for a new family camera. A walked in, borrowed though the camera section, and then headed out of the store to compare prices with the nearby Radio Shack and Walmart. I was honestly surprised that I ended up heading back to Best Buy ten minutes before closing to purchase one of the cameras that I had looked at. The camera was a Samsung ST150F.Cue the review...

It's a selfie...about the camera.

The Samsung ST150F was released in March of 2013 as the cheapest point-and-shoot in the Samsung SMART Camera lineup. While it normally sells for $129.99, I got mine $55 off, only costing $74.99. How? It was an "open-box computer", meaning that it was a display model in the store at one point but was then repackaged to be sold. When I bought it yesterday, it was in perfect condition with all the accessories. If you are looking to save money on electronics, watch for certified refurbished and open item deals. (But that's a post for another day...)

This camera offers a 3 inch QVGA LCD display, a 25 mm wide lens with 5x optical zoom, WiFi connectivity, and Samsung's SMART Camera 2.0 software. It is powered by a 700mAh battery that is rechargeable via Mini USB and the 16.2 megapixel photos and 720p video is stored on a MicroSD Card. All of this fits into a very small package.

The ST150F has all the basic features you would expect from a dedicated point-and-shoot, including panorama, which looks great, exceptionally on Google Plus (see below). There are also numorius video and photo editing tools built in. But the most unique feature is the built-in WiFi, which allows for some new types of content sharing. And they really do work.

With an Android or iOS app, you can set up the camera as a "hotspot" to copy content from the camera to the device via MobileLink. You can also use the smart device as a Remote ViewFinder to preview what the camera sees from your phone or tablet.

Also included are Auto Backup, so that when you are connected to WiFi you can back up photos to your PC-or you could skip all that and just email them straight from the camera. Options are also available to upload to Facebook, Picasa, YouTube, and SkyDrive along with AllShare Play (which I don't really understand yet).

Personally, this is a great quality camera that is easy to use and share your content with others. If you are in need for a new camera and want some modern options without breaking the bank, the Samsung ST150F is the camera for you. Too bad it can't make me not blink in photos...

Panorama Test

I'll see you tomorrow over at Douglas Vlogs for a new video. Talk to you then!